Contribution of Protein Electrophoresis to Rockfish (Scorpaenidae) Systematics

Abstract

During 1965–67, multiple hemoglobins of 1905 specimens, comprising 2 species of Sebastolobus and 26 of Sebastodes; muscle proteins of 1677 specimens, comprising 1 species of Scorpaena, 1 of Scorpaenodes, 2 of Sebastolobus, 2 of Sebastes, and 24 of Sebastodes; and eye lens proteins of 431 specimens, covering 1 species of Sebastolobus and 19 of Sebastodes were examined by starch–gel zone electrophoresis. Scorpaena, Sebastolobus, and Sebastodes specimens were collected in the eastern Pacific Ocean (California to Gulf of Alaska), and Sebastes specimens were collected from the western Atlantic Ocean (Newfoundland). Electropherograms were independent of sex and size. Hemoglobin electropherograms were species specific, and where variant, nongenetically linked patterns appeared, evidence suggested existence of additional species, for example, S. diploproa (2), S. reedi (2), and S. aleutianus (3). Genetically linked polymorphism was detected in hemoglobin protein electropherograms of S. crameri and muscle protein electropherograms of S. elongatus. Species specificity broke down with muscle proteins in many species of Sebastodes resulting in the separation of the 27 species examined (from this and other studies) into four distinct subgroupings. Generically distinct patterns were prominently evident in the muscle proteins of Sebastodes, Sebastolobus, Scorpaenodes, and Scorpaena, but not in Sebastes. The order of difference between Sebastes and Sebastodes was no more than that inherent in the four subgroupings within the latter genus. Eye lens proteins were genus-specific only. Relative value of the three groups of proteins as diagnostic tools at various levels of organization and as characters in the phylogenetic analyses of scorpaenids is discussed.